HOW QUICKLY THINGS CHANGE!

Jesus said: "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:34)

Jesus gave this directive after speaking about the uselessness of anxiety. He said it was pointless to worry about tomorrow. Anxiety is counter-productive. He said life's objective was to learn to trust God for life's necessities as we yield personal life to our sovereign God's rule. "Reality" in our physical world changes in the "blink of an eye." Realities in God's kingdom are eternal. Jesus' directive: neither trust nor depend on "realities" that are certain to change; trust and depend on the changeless.

Each year the week before Missions' Sunday, Joyce and I visit our parents in Crossville, TN. Joyce's Dad is 88 and her Mom is 85. My Mom is 86. All three live in their own homes. Those two homes are separated by only four miles. (Joyce and I called those houses "home" when we were kids). Usually we also have opportunity to see my only brother and sister-in-law, their children, and some of Joyce's cousins and aunts. We visited Crossville last week.

This morning we learned several tornadoes touched down in that area. Then we learned these storms touched down in the vicinity of our families. After confirming our immediate families and their homes were okay, we learned all of them lost electrical service, most of them lost telephone service, and so many trees were down that some of them could not get out of their driveways.

While their homes had no damage, some of their neighbors' homes were severely damaged. My sister-in-law's comment was, "We will never live long enough for Pigeon Ridge Road to look the same." [That is right: Pigeon Ridge Road. I grew up on Grassy Cove Road with Turkey Oak Road behind me. My brother lives on Coon Hollow Road. Joyce is prestigious -- she grew up on Wells Road, and she is a Wells!]

How strange to realize places so familiar to us, places robed in fall beauty just last week, are now scenes of a disaster that produced fatalities and destruction. What seemed so secure only a week ago is now damaged or destroyed because uninvited circular winds blew. The security produced by electrical power, telephones, and road access was imprisoned by circular winds and uprooted trees.

Electrical power will flow again. Telephones will ring again. Driveways will be cleared. Damaged houses will be repaired. Many destroyed houses will be rebuilt. And the uprooted trees? For years uprooted trees grimly will testify to the insecurity of trusting in the unreliable.

What happens to you when powerful winds blow within? What happens when the rains descend, the floods come, the winds blow, and burst against your life? Does it stand or collapse? (Matthew 7:24-27) Does trusting the wrong things imprison you? Does trusting God transform your insecurity to security?